INTRODUCTION 



TN OFFERING THIS VOLUME of "Wild Animals of North America" to mem- 

 -*• bers of the National Geographic Society, the Editor combines the text and 

 illustrations of two entire numbers of the NATIONAL Geographic Maga- 

 zine — that of November, 191 6, devoted to the Larger Mammals of North 

 America, and that of May, 191 8, in which the Smaller Mammals of our 

 continent were described and presented pictorially. 



Edward W. Nelson, the author of both articles. Is one of the foremost 

 naturalists of our time. For forty years he has been the friend and student 

 of North America's wild-folk. He has made his home in forest and desert, 

 on mountain side and plain, amid the snows of Alaska and the tropic heat 

 of Central American jungles — wherever Nature's creatures of infinite variety 

 were to be observed, their habits noted, and their range defined. 



In the whole realm of scientists, the Geographic could not have found 

 a writer more admirably equipped for the authorship of a book such as "Wild 

 Animals of North America" than Mr. Nelson, for, in addition to his excep- 

 tional scientific training and his standing as Chief of the unique U. S. Biolog- 

 ical Survey, he possesses the rare quality of the born writer, able to visualize 

 for the reader the things which he has seen and the experiences which he has 

 undergone in seeing them. Each of his animal biographies, of which there 

 are 119 in this volume, is a cameo brochure — concisely and entertainingly 

 presented, yet never deviating from scientific accuracy. 



In jVIr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the National Geographic Society has 

 secured for Mr. Nelson the same gifted artist collaborator which it provided 

 for Henry W. Henshaw, author of "Common Birds of Town and Country," 

 "The Warblers," and "American Game Birds," all of which were assem- 

 bled in our "Book of Birds." In the present instance Mr. Fuertes has 

 produced a natural history gallery of paintings of the Larger and Smaller 

 Mammals of North America which is a notable contribution to wild-animal 

 portraiture, and the reproductions of these works of art are among the most 

 effective and lifelike examples of color printing ever produced in this country. 



Supplementing the work of Mr. Nelson and Mr. Fuertes is a series of 

 drawings by the noted naturalist and nature-lover, Ernest Thompson Seton, 

 showing the tracks of many of the most widely known mammals. 



"Wild Animals of North America" provicles In compact and permanent 

 form a natural history for which the National Geographic Society expended 

 $100,000 in the two issues of the Magazine in which the articles and illustra- 

 tions originally appeared. 



Gilbert Grosvenor, 



Director and Editor. 



